Susan Rice explains her praise of Bowe Bergdahl

Susan Rice isn’t backing down from her controversial comments that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” in Afghanistan.

“I realize there has been a lot of discussion and controversy around this,” the National Security Adviser said during an interview Friday with CNN’s Jim Acosta at the D-Day anniversary in Normandy, France. “What I was referring to is the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That in itself is a very honorable thing.”

The senior adviser to President Barack Obama added that the public is unfairly castigating Bergdahl without knowing the full story behind his service and she asked that people reserve judgment until all the facts are out.

“He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty. He is now being tried in the court of public opinion after having gone through an enormously traumatic five years of captivity,” she said.

Rice also echoed Obama’s comments Thursday in Europe, when the president noted that Bergdahl deserved to be acknowledged for volunteering to serve in Afghanistan.

“Let’s remember: This is a young man who volunteered to serve his country,” Rice said. “He was taken as a prisoner of war. He suffered in captivity. He’s now trying to begin the process of recovery. Let’s let that happen.”

When asked whether there was proof that Bergdahl was a deserter, Rice said the White House had not drawn any conclusions to that effect, saying that the military and administration still needed to hear from Bergdahl himself.

Rice has once again found herself the target of criticism from conservatives after her appearance last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” when she defended the Obama administration’s deal to recover Bergdahl. “He served the United States with honor and distinction,” she said Sunday, when asked about the soldier’s service. “And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years.”

Several Republican lawmakers have slammed Rice for the comments in light of reports that Bergdahl might have been a deserter and likely walked off from his platoon voluntarily. Some reports have said that as many as six soldiers might have died while searching for him.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for Rice’s resignation earlier this week, saying, “I can’t believe anything she tells me.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that she should “stay off the Sunday talk shows,” an allusion also to Rice’s appearance on the Sunday talk shows in 2012 following the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. On September 16, 2012, then-U.N. Ambassador Rice appeared on several talk shows to say that the attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were a spontaneous response to a YouTube video. Months later, after fierce backlash from Republicans over her comments, she withdrew her consideration to become Obama’s secretary of State.

Acosta brought up conservatives’ criticism in the interview Friday, saying she had become “a GOP lightning rod.”

“I’m up front with the American people and I always do my best on behalf of the country,” she said in response to his question about whether she has been too loose with her facts on the Sunday shows.

“In the case of Bowe Bergdahl,” she added, “for me to condemn him without any opportunity for him to have the chance to tell his side of the story, without any due process that we accord any American, that would be inherently unfair.”

On Benghazi, she reiterated that she “provided the best information that the U.S. government had at the time,” while conceding that “parts of it turned out to be wrong.”